The Oper Hand Editorial Standards & Methodology
Editorial Direction & Theme Selection
Editorial direction and content themes are guided by Steve Ross, based on his 30-year pulse on startups and scaleups. Steve identifies the critical ‘points of failure’ facing today’s businesses and frames each article to address these specific market needs.
Categories of Expertise
Each piece falls into one of two categories to ensure a balance of historical wisdom and current market relevance:
- Direct Experience: Lessons learned from 30 years in the trenches, including SaaS leaders like Outreach.io, wealth management firms like PIMCO, and hands-on work with renowned leaders like Tony Robbins, as well as a variety of startup and scaleup advisory clients.
- Expert Analysis: Steve’s professional take on current trends, market events, and the future of startups and scaleups.
Our Production Process
Articles are authored by The Oper Hand Insights Desk. We utilize a ‘Human-First, AI-Enhanced’ workflow, leveraging advanced AI to synthesize data and optimize for readability.
- Integrity Review: No content is published without a final review and approval by Steve Ross to ensure it passes the Oper Hand Lens for nuance and ethics.
- Source Hierarchy: Our methodology prioritizes action over theory. We rank our sources in this order: (1) Primary data from Steve’s 30-year career working inside and with startups and scaleups, (2) Direct case studies from our client base, and (3) Verified third-party analysis from top-tier publications like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur.
The 'Oper Hand Lens' & Value Guarantee
Every article is filtered through the ‘Oper Hand Lens’, a proprietary set of standards and operational principles developed by Steve Ross over three decades. We do not publish thought leadership for its own sake; every insight must be immediately applicable to a startup or scaleup operating rhythm.